Ciutat de la Justicia

On a border site between Barcelona and l'Hospitalet, this new 330.000 sqm City of Justice has been completed in 2008. Bringing together legal departments that were previously located in 17 buildings that were scattered across the two cities, this precinct comprises eight new buildings that are formally and compositionally unified in an apparently haphazard arrangement. In form and disposition, the City of Justice breaks down the huge programme of accommodation into four judicial buildings, clustered around a linked concourse with four independent buildings set on the periphery. The central cluster of buildings contains courtrooms at the ground level, and uses the concourse as a filter to gather people at the beginning and end of their judicial visit. The remaining four buildings provide accommodation for judicial support services, such as forensic sciences, and include two commercial buildings with retail at grade.